Was scheduled on a flight from RSW nonstop to MSP today at 1:05. Sat on plane as they were trying to fix a lavatory. Around 2:15 I checked trip-it and said the flight was going to be delayed another hour. Went on to delta.com and they gave me options for a later flight, which I took the 6pm nonstop. They deplaned us at 3pm, then at 4pm said they fixed the problem, and they would start boarding again. When I went up to the GA, she said that the flight was full, and that I gave up my seat.

My question is, how could a flight suddenly fill up when it had been delayed for over 3 hours, and there were plenty of seats unoccupied on the original flight???

Is there a better way to keep your position? I was only trying to secure my seat to ensure I would get there in time for my meeting tomorrow morning. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

You protected yourself on the other flight, its been reported once you do that now you lose your original seat.

There may have been people who SDC'ed onto your flight or were standbys that got to the airport for the next flight and got on yours instead.

Sounds more like the OP rebooked on to the later flight, not just protected, and thus proactively cancelled the first seat.

Yeah, if you change your itinerary online and hit save, you've rebooked, not protected. Gotta call up SMS and have them do it

I've also come to an airport and SDC on a flight with an earlier mechanical, thus taking an available seat. I guess it is possible that someone got to the flight, gave it a try, and got your seat?

If you did this online you rebooked yourself to the new flights. Only an agent can protect you on another flight.

I had a delayed flight on Friday, so I phoned reservations to get protected on a later flight. The agent told me they don't protect anymore. He saif that you can't get protected on a later flight without giving up your original flight.

Wrong. You can have your orginal flight and one protection flight.

Did you call the general line or the PM SkyPriority line?

I had no problems staying confirmed with UG on my delayed flight as well as protected on a later flight (with UG).
I had to use their services three times in the last 30 days.

Agreed, but I had a possible situation last week out of JFK (JFK-BWI kept getting delayed due to storms rolling through the Baltimore area). I called the SkyMiles # and asked if I could get "backed-up" (I should've used the magic word "protected") on another flight in case that got canceled (maybe one out of DTW or ATL). The agent said they could not do that any more. Luckily, the flight wasn't CX'd but there are absolutely agents out there that are misinformed. Training folks need to clarify to the agents that protection/backing-up/etc. is still OK to do.